FOLLOWING the success of the Scone Thoroughbreds women's tag side, the players within the summer tackle competition will have a lot of expectation to live up to.
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While the sides are not the exact same, with only around a dozen taking part in both, the desire to win will be strong within all involved.
And there will be a lot involved, with organisers being forced to increase it from a 9s to 11s tournament due to a further increase in players.
Thoroughbreds' Samantha Elphick spoke about why she believes participation has been on the up.
"It's really good, it does get really hot but we do play Friday nights so it cools down a fair bit, but it's good to have other things to play aside from touch during the off-season," she said.
The representative side may have also been a factor in the change of rules according to Ms Elphick.
"The rep team is 13 a side, so they've bumped it up to 11 to get more girls on the field but also to make that transition easier," she said.
The competition will comprise of six teams and last just as many weeks, with the grand final and third place playoff to take place in Muswellbrook on November 15.
"Every year it has been six weeks, probably due to the heat and the time of the season," she said.
"But also because we have six teams, it's just easier to play every team once then have finals."
The season kicks off this Friday night at Murrurundi, with the home side playing Scone at 6:30, Aberdeen facing Merriwa at 7:05 and Singleton taking on Muswellbrook at 7:40.
The current Thoroughbreds list is made up of Courtney Gee, Demi Randell, Dominique Carter, Grace Gallen, Hannah Turkington, Samantha Elphick, Katherine Nicholson, Lyndsay Atkinson, Millie Graham, Paula McCoy, Phoebe Maritz, Phoenix McInerney, Samantha Gee, Sophie Hinde, Tayah Clout, Tegan Boswell and Terri Anderson.